Tiger Woods and caddie Joe LaCava talk about the 11th hole during the second round of the 113th U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia. / JD Mercer, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

ARDMORE, Pa. â?? Tiger Woods winced and grimaced and occasionally shook his ailing left arm throughout the day Friday. He missed fairways. He whacked at the tall rough. He left putts short.

When it was over, he said he was tired and hungry. He didn't look happy. The word that might best describe him was grumpy.

A disastrous day?

Not at all. Woods is right in the thick of things halfway through the 2013 U.S. Open. He shot an even-par 70 in the second round Friday after finishing up his first round earlier in the day with a 73. He was tied for 13th as play began in Saturday's third round.

Three-over-par after the second round might not sound like much, but on this golf course, on this day, that was a very good score. It put him within striking distance of the leaders on a day when scores averaged around 74 for the second round, and it kept Woods very much in the picture for the weekend.

Woods has won three U.S. Opens, but the last was exactly five years ago, at Torrey Pines, on a broken leg. Woods has not won any major tournament since. To go oh-for-the-last-five years after winning 14 majors in his first 11 years on tour is quite something.

But now here Woods is, at another Open, and we're discussing injuries again. Although he has been reluctant to say much of anything about it, Woods hurt his left elbow at The Players Championship last month, he revealed Friday, and it appeared to be bothering him when he swatted shots out of the deep, gnarly Merion rough during the first two rounds this week.

"Well, it is what it is," Woods said at the end of his long day. As medical terminology goes, you really can't get more to the point than that.

Earlier, after finishing his first round, Woods was asked about wincing while hitting several shots. He said he "didn't feel very good on ... a few shots."

Asked what he felt, Woods replied, "Pain. But it is what it is and you move on."

And he did indeed move on.

"I played well," he said after the second round. "I just made a couple of mistakes out there today, but I really played well. Maybe I could have gotten one or two more out of it, but it was a pretty good day."

Even more important was how Woods never let the round get away from him, making several key par saves to avoid the kind of run of bogeys that derailed Luke Donald, for instance, who at one time was 4-under in his second round, but finished at even par. Woods also missed his share of birdie putts, never looking like he felt comfortable on the greens.

Then again, who feels comfortable on these greens?

"It's hard with the wind and the pin locations," he said. "They're really tough. They're trying to protect par. We knew (the pins) were going to be in (difficult) areas, but we didn't think they were going to be as severe as they are. A lot of guys are missing putts and blowing them by the holes."

Par was a good score Friday and it's looking like a good score for Sunday evening, too. Asked what he planned to do on the weekend, Woods was more realistic than starry-eyed.

"Just keep grinding," he said. "You just don't ever know what the winning score is going to be. You don't know if the guys are going to come back. We have a long way to go, and these conditions aren't going to get any easier. They're going to get more difficult."

Few predicted that Merion, a venerable postage stamp of a golf course sandwiched among the beautiful homes of Philadelphia's Main Line, would put up such a fight.

But now that it has, Woods is pleased to be hanging in for the long haul, with a grueling weekend in front of him.